


Quake

by Hafwen



Category: The Evil Within (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, This was in my drafts forever, Time for some softe!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-28
Updated: 2017-01-28
Packaged: 2018-09-20 13:14:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9493076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hafwen/pseuds/Hafwen
Summary: A short one-shot.Sebastian has an encounter with Ruvik.(This is super super soft lol sorry not sorry I'm a sap for them having nice moments)





	

 

Sebastian rounded the corner of a large stone building. It appeared to be historic, but it was hard to tell by the state it was in. Bits of its face were strewn about the broken sidewalk in chunks, their once light grey color dulled by age and the dark color of the sky overhead.

It was quiet on the street, with only a few sounds coming from the thud of a haunt’s foot up ahead. Sebastian took notice but ignored it as he trudged his legs forward in the direction he hoped his partners had gone. It seemed easy enough to follow the main road - and there was no reason for them to have taken a more difficult path.

It seemed that was all he was doing lately. Following his partners’ trail or the boy Leslie’s. And if not that, he was too busy saving his own skin to pay much attention to where they may have gone. Too many times he’s lost track of their location or simply let them slip through his hands. Ruvik wasn’t helping with that either.

_That_ man’s existence was a constant threat to Sebastian and he was tired of it. It wasn’t that he couldn’t handle him - it was that every time Ruvik showed up he would cause some sort of nuisance or hazard Sebastian had to deal with. Sebastian was sure he’d drop dead from exhaustion before he’d be able to give in to the creatures the robed man made. His current physical state was a testament to that. Sebastian felt like he was dragging his body down the street more than it was carrying him. He’d have to visit Nurse Gutierrez special “chair” for some much needed energy soon.

Sebastian stopped at the base of a decent sized structure. Glancing up, it had maybe 12 or so floors - probably an apartment building which meant bathrooms with mirrors he could check. Prying open the doors, he stepped inside. A large room greeted him with a reception desk off to the left, with elevators beyond and a large staircase at the other end of the room. He’d try his luck with the stairs first - lest Ruvik decide to play with moving elevators again.

It was a shame Ruvik’s mind was so twisted. The staircase must have been grand, once. The carpet adorning the stairs was still soft under Sebastian’s feet; its’ rich red color now a deep rusting maroon. Something Sebastian wouldn’t be climbing day to day - his own little apartment building paled in comparison to this one. A few ripped paintings clung to the walls, their delicate and purposeful strokes soiled. Maybe Victoriano wasn’t a fan. Sebastian moved on and gave them little attention. They were certainly worthless now.

The detective followed the staircase up as far as it would go, ending into a hallway with a couple ornate doors rising from the unpolished marble floor. Some small decorative tables lay scattered and broken throughout the hallway. Their contents, immaculate vases with flowers, now lay shattered and dead.

Sebastian picked his way carefully around them, attempting not to crunch the porcelain under his boots. He made for the door on the left side of the hall. When he arrived at its front he took a long look. Chances are it had been closed for some time; dust and dirt had long settled into the gold molding that lacked its luster. Sebastian held his ear to the door, hands on either side of it, just to be safe. After a few moments he heard nothing and felt confident enough to try the door knob.

It didn’t give at first and Sebastian tried turning it with more force. He didn’t want to break it but he had to find a mirror somewhere. After another moment of twisting the handle he heard a faint -click- on the other side. The hair at his neck stood up, but he brushed it off as nerves and concluded he was the cause of the sound after another moment of waiting. He steeled himself and pushed open the door. Gently…

Sebastian was greeted with a thin layer of dust from the door’s lack of movement. He waved a hand in front of his face to move the dust away from his nose and eyes. The room inside was illuminated by large windows which lined the far wall, and its grandeur reflected the rest of the building he had seen. The main area in front of him had a few plush armchairs, including a couch, and multiple carved tables with random objects and lamps atop them. The detective in Sebastian compelled him to go to the notebooks he saw on the closest end table.

He silently made his way over, not bothering to check out the rest of the apartment. The notebooks looked very old, tattered and small. They were not professional grade but still Sebastian lifted the first one with gentle fingers. The leather was cracked and peeling away from the surface of the cover, and a faint label was visible. Sebastian couldn’t make out anything from the faded writing.

He held the book in his left hand and delicately flipped the rotting cover with his right. Inside was some more faded words, a few he could make out but did not seem significant. He continued to scan through the pages, their parchment crinkling like dried leaves. He stopped when he recognized a name.

_Laura;_ Written in meticulous handwriting.

He squinted at the name, trying to make out the words beneath it.

To my…You…happiness…I’ve…time…read…wish we could stay…soon…

Sebastian could only make out a few words and couldn’t piece together any significance from them. It seemed someone was keeping a journal, probably Ruvik, but there wasn’t much to be gained from it. Sebastian put the notebook back on the tabletop and picked up the next one.

This one seemed much less tattered, almost as if it had been left there recently. The leather was in nearly perfect condition and the pages were still white. There was no label on the front this time. Sebastian opened the cover.

And promptly dropped the book.

_Sebastian_ had been written on the first page in bold red ink. In the same delicate scrawl he’d seen in the other notebook.

The letters stared up at him from the floor. He didn’t move.

Nothing happened for long moments and Sebastian’s heart began to settle. Ruvik probably left it here to scare him for snooping about for clues. He placed his arms behind him, his hands laced together on the back of his head. He needed to relax.

Composed, he looked down at the mocking book once again. He kicked it away with his boot without a second glance.

Sebastian’s guard was up now that he knew Ruvik could be watching his movements. He had no way of really knowing whether or not the book was placed there long ago.

His eyes scanned around the room once more, searching for anything out of the ordinary. He spotted a few random papers lying around among other things but nothing of any real value. Stepping over to the large windows, he took a moment to look out into the view. At that moment he heard a small sound.

Something light, but insistent. Thudding on carpet.

He whipped around, gun drawn and ready. The sound grew nearer, and he heard what sounded almost like the lilt of a laugh. The thudding came closer. Sebastian looked to the door on the left that lead to the other rooms of the apartment.

A moment later a silhouette drifted through the wood. Its shape illuminated with a soft blue and white glow that traveled outwards. Sebastian trained his gun on the shape but was reluctant to move. This seemed familiar…

Just then another shape trailed into the room following the first, the same laugh drifting around Sebastian’s ears. They flowed around the room, chasing each other, before the first leapt onto the couch. Stilled, the silhouette began to appear more stable and slowly the form took a more physical shape as Sebastian was able to recognize features.

It was a young girl with long locks, her face angular yet regal, in a flowing dress that draped over her small frame. Below her, the other silhouette took form as it sat on the floor near the edge of the couch, a young but serious face with short cropped hair, in prim day clothes.

Sebastian recognized the face immediately from the Victoriano family portrait he’d seen.

Ruvik looked up at his sister from below, his face guarded but with a small smile gracing his lips.

“This may be the last time we can visit you know.”

Laura looked down at him with a quirk of an eyebrow. “What makes you say that? It’s lovely here. And Papa loves it here.”

“He loves it more than you know…”Ruvik trailed off looking back to the door they just came through,” like that maid of his.”

Laura glared at him, “The maid is just a maid, even if Papa did fancy her, Mother would never allow it.”

“And Mother didn’t want to come here this time did she?” Ruvik answered without looking up.

Laura’s face lost its glare and she sighed. “It doesn’t matter...we’re still having a nice time. You know how I do enjoy the city.”

Ruvik glanced back up at her, “I do know, that’s the only reason I don’t make a fuss in the first place. I don’t understand your attraction to it though – all of the noisy, busy people around…”

“But that’s what makes it so wonderful. It’s loud and alive and not quiet like the manor. I could run out into the street and make a fuss and no one would care!”

“No one would bat an eye at home either…”

“Yes but that’s only because there’s no one _there_ to bat an eye!”

Ruvik conceded and looked to the windows – as if he was looking directly through Sebastian as he stood in front of them.

“That’s a good thing in my opinion, though…” His voice trailed off as their silhouettes faded away, leaving Sebastian alone once more.

Sebastian didn’t quite know what to make of the memory he’d just seen. The pair had definitely been young; visiting the city with their father it seemed, but for reasons he didn’t know. He was about to put his gun away when he heard another faint laugh.

It started out faint, gathering strength, before morphing into something more sinister. A laugh he had heard before on the whispers of the wind in his darkest times within STEM. He felt it in the back of his mind; a prying sensation, like a dull ache. A sensation that gripped him without mercy: made him put a hand to his head as he swayed on his feet. He saw the memory of the children flitter within his mind, replaying on a loop without his permission.

The laughing stopped. It was replaced with Ruvik himself, slowing gliding into the room from the hallway.

“Ruvik.” Sebastian choked out, standing straighter.

The man in question simply looked at him through deep eyes. The eyes that held a dam of emotion behind them. It seemed one false move, perhaps a look held for too long, might break it.

“We came here – often.” The robed man said, “Too often for my taste.”

Sebastian didn’t move, but watched as Ruvik padded over to the couch where the memory had taken place.

“My father had his reasons I suppose. But I could never get over the sounds. The constant moving chaos of the filth just beyond the glass…” At that moment the windows behind Sebastian blew out; their glass shattering in jagged pieces. He covered his head before raising it to glare at Ruvik, however the man continued on like nothing had happened.

“But…”Ruvik hesitated before speaking again, “…she was happy here. Laura.” He said her name like a prayer; his lips forming her name like something sacred.

“She would always gaze out of the windows, looking down on all of the people beneath her. Just watching them. Peering into their lives for a moment. She would often tell me stories about their lives that she made up in her head as they passed by…” Ruvik looked down at the carpet. “I suppose I don’t need her to do that for me anymore now that I have the STEM.”

Sebastian could tell the man was lamenting her loss. She had probably been the only person who ever treated Ruvik with affection, what with the way he was obsessed with her. He was a man left trying to fill the void an older sister left behind. Sebastian could relate – he had his own void to fill, usually with alcohol. Sebastian lowered his guard just slightly; trying not to put Ruvik off in his vulnerable state. The man was volatile.

Ruvik continued on, “Laura always thought this place was beautiful. She would drag me behind her as she toured the halls and rooms of the building. But it wasn’t the building that was beautiful. She was the one who made it that way. Every room sparkled for her, every floor shined as she traveled through them…” he clutched at his tattered robe, eyes downcast in a state Sebastian had never seen before, “but both her and the beauty are gone, now.”

Sebastian was at a loss for words. He didn’t know if what he was seeing was genuine human emotion or a cheap trick to play with his mind. Cautiously, he approached the couch Ruvik was sitting on.

Ruvik didn’t look up at his approach, his face far away, and hands idly fingering the cloth resting in his lap.

Just as Sebastian began to sit down on the other end of the couch, Ruvik started speaking again, startling him.

“The city is very different from the countryside. People may not pay heed to others here, but that doesn’t mean they are blind. Perhaps if more people had been around during the barn fire, if someone had heard…surely if it had happened here in the city instead, she…”his voice cut off with a stuttering exhale of breath.

Sebastian could clearly see Ruvik was regretting what happened. But nothing could change the past, even here in STEM Ruvik couldn’t get a grasp long enough to achieve the reality he really wanted.

No longer can he see this place as it once was.

“I - I couldn’t _see_ what she really saw in this place…” Ruvik’s words had started to change pitch as he became distraught, eyes squeezed shut, “I still _can’t see it_ -“ Ruvik raised a hand to his face, the other gripped tightly in his robe.  The room around them began to shake, parts of it shifting in and out of existence. The rifts in the world outside groaned and pulsed.

Sebastian made a quick decision, and acted against his instincts as he reached for the other man as the building began to crumble.

Tentatively, he placed a hand on the back of Ruvik’s covered neck, pulling him against his chest; his other arm wrapping around the center of the man’s back. But Ruvik hadn’t stilled, instead he was shaking like the world around them. Sebastian pulled him in tighter, trying to calm him down before he destroyed the very fabric of the universe.

Daring to rest his chin gently atop the other man’s head as he held him together, he closed his own eyes against the chaos drowning his ears.

Sebastian felt a pressure on his back and realized Ruvik had embraced him lightly. His heart was hammering in his chest against the ribs pressed against Ruviks pale cheek but he couldn’t help it. Not when the world was quaking as hard as the body in his arms.

“Ruvik…”

Slowly, the tremors of the world began to subside, and Ruvik seemed to be shivering against him. Sebastian didn’t think he was crying as his shirt felt dry, but he couldn’t be sure.  A short time passed before he felt the arms around him drop back to their sides, and he gently released the man.

A second ticked by before Sebastian forced himself to look down at Ruvik…

Who was looking right back at him, a thousand emotions fighting behind his grey eyes. Sebastian stared back into them, temporarily trapped, as the air filled with the intensity of words unspoken.

Sebastian moved back slightly as he cleared his throat to try and fill the silence, but it didn’t matter.

Ruvik had gone.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I have no excuse for this other than I was in need of something fluffy.  
> Why am I a sucker for softe!Ruvik?


End file.
